CHICKENS DIE OF CONSUMPTION.
By Editor
THE subject of tuberculosis in all its various forms, is receiving a great deal of attention at the present time in medical journals, as well as in the columns of the press in general. It is found that the disease is not only very greatly on the increase in the human family, but also that it is spreading to almost all forms of animal life. That the chicken is subject to the disease is very evident from the following paragraphs that appeared in a recent issue of the Portland Morning Oregonian:— "CORVALLIS, Or., February 24.—Of striking interest are the results of an autopsy, held in the bacteriological laboratory at the Oregon Agricultural College, on the remains of a chicken. The fowl died of consumption. The heart, lungs, and intestines were a mass of tubercles that ranged in size from as small as a pinhead to as large as a walnut. Each tubercle, of course, was filled with countless numbers of tuberculosis bacilli. The liver, in particular, showed the ravages of the disease. In color and character it was not unlike the section of peanut taffy, the tubercles being represented by the nut kernels in the candy. "The fowl came from a farm near Corvallis. Half a dozen chickens on the place had died of apparently the same disease. The strange fatality among her fowls interested the owner, and she took the sick chicken to Professor Pernot, at the college, in the hope of finding a name and a cure for the disease. In four days after it was brought to the college, and before the character of the disease had been determined, the chicken died. Professor Pernot at once proceeded to hold a post-mortem, with the results here noted. "Strange to say, the lungs were found to be but slightly affected with tuberculosis. There were a few tubercles in these organs, but it was evident that the bacilli had reached the lungs, not through the windpipe, but from the digestive and other internal organs. This was the opinion both of Professor Pernot, bacteriologist of the station, and of Dr. Withycombe, vice-director. The deduction that followed was that the fowl contracted tuberculosis from something that it had swallowed as food. Subsequent investigation showed that some time ago a person residing very near the place from which the fowl was brought, had died of consumption. The college authorities believe that the chickens contracted tuberculosis by swallowing sputum expectorated by the consumptive. The case is remarkable on account of the train of speculation naturally aroused as to what might be the results of such cases. Whether chickens affected with tuberculosis, transfer bacilli to their eggs, is said to be an open question. "Professor Pernot secured photographs of the diseased organs, which will be mounted for use in farmers' institutes as an object lesson, showing the necessity of cleanliness. Portions of the affected parts have been sent to Washington, where, as well as at the local station, careful study is being made of the conditions." It is the object of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES to keep before the world the great fact that all that belongs to this old earth is rapidly crumbling into decay. Everything points to its speedy dissolution. Such facts as those set forth in the foregoing paragraphs serve to emphasize this most forcibly. Incidentally a strong admonition is given to depart from the unnatural habit of eating the flesh of birds and animals. A wrong system of education has9taught men that they can not live without animal flesh. But a greater mistake never was made, and it was never so dangerous to continue to propagate this error as now; for all the animal world is groaning under disease, and to eat the flesh of these animals is to invite the most terrible diseases into our systems, and to bring us to a sure and untimely death. This is not a subject to be turned aside by a little scoffing. It is both serious and vital, and demands our most careful thought and most intelligent action. The Word of the Lord should be studied most carefully in connection with the subject; for it is only by the power of that Word, no matter how correct we may try to be in other lines, that we can be kept through the perilous times upon which this world has entered.